The WAR American League All-Star Team

With the All-Star game rapidly approaching, and the Puig controversy just getting settled, I felt like now was a good time to make my All-Star rosters. There will be an American League team post today; a National League team post tomorrow, and a comparison of the two starting line-ups (I would create from the rosters you see in these two posts) on the 13th. After all of that, you guys can vote on who you think would win the All-Star game based off of my rosters/line-ups.

These rosters will be made up of the players with the top WAR value; two at each infield position, six outfielders, six starting pitchers, and six relief pitchers. To qualify for these rosters the player must have a minimum of 200 plate appearances at the Major League level. Included in these posted rosters, I will be posting the player’s triple slash lines for the position players…and the FIPs for the pitchers.

POSITION PLAYERS

Player Name

Team

AVG/OBP/SLG

WAR

Catcher

Joe Mauer

Twins

.316/.396/.466

3.5

Jason Castro

Astros

.266/.330/.474

2.2

First Basemen

Chris Davis

Orioles

.310/.389/.690

4.4

Edwin Encarnacion

Blue Jays

.266/.357/.529

2.6

Second Basemen

Dustin Pedroia

Red Sox

.318/.400/.441

3.6

Robinson Cano

Yankees

.299/.380/.537

3.5

Third Basemen

Miguel Cabrera

Tigers

.366/.456/.676

5.9

Manny Machado

Orioles

.318/.346/.485

4.4

Short Stop

Jhonny Peralta

Tigers

.301/.358/.439

2.4

Jed Lowrie

Athletics

.302/.370/.426

1.9

Outfielders

Mike Trout

Angels

.320/.399/.560

5.4

Jose Bautista

Blue Jays

.261/.360/.506

3.4

Jacoby Ellsbury

Red Sox

.306/.368/.419

3.4

Colby Rasmus

Blue Jays

.251/.339/.478

3.1

Brett Gardner

Yankees

.272/.339/.426

2.6

Alex Gordon

Royals

.287/.357/.428

2.3

PITCHERS

Player Name

Team

FIP

WAR

Starting Pitchers

Max Scherzer

Tigers

2.61

4.0

Derek Holland

Rangers

2.86

3.7

Felix Hernandez

Mariners

2.70

3.4

Chris Sale

White Sox

2.80

3.4

Yu Darvish

Rangers

3.23

3.1

Justin Verlander

Tigers

3.22

2.9

Relief Pitchers

Jesse Crain

White Sox

1.54

2.0

Greg Holland

Royals

1.32

1.6

Drew Smyly

Tigers

2.07

1.5

Joe Nathan

Rangers

2.44

1.5

Addison Reed

White Sox

2.68

1.3

Glen Perkins

Twins

1.84

1.3

There is your American League All-Star team according to Fangraph’s WAR. I’m pretty surprised at the fact that the White Sox have so many pitchers on these rosters; when I think White Sox, pitching is usually not the first thing to come to mind.

What are some of the surprises you guys see in the American League roster?